The Revenant

Very few films have a production that is so infamous that it almost overshadowes the film itself. Long before the general audience had seen a single frame of The Revenant, there were articles after articles being published about how much of a train wreck the production was for it. At first, it was just the sheer brutal environment being utilized for the sake of realism, then it was overages attributed to the insistence by director Alejandro G. Iñárritu to use only natural light during the magic hour, i.e. dawn and dusk, which limited filming time to just an hour or two a day. On top of that, filming was done mostly chronologically instead of the traditional way, and a decision like that has the potential to double the production budget without bringing with it any real value for the money. Indeed, the initial budget of $60 million ballooned to $135 million.

Such production choices led to tension on set, including a falling out between the director and one of the producers, James W. Skotchdopole, who was banned from the set and eventually replaced. Most of the on-set tensions can be traced back to the director, who, according to many who were interviewed in the aftermath of the filming, had an ego that got out of control. This was partially fueled by his Academy Award wins the previous year for BiRDMAN or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Birdman won him a Best Director Academy Award as well as winning Best Picture. It reinvigorated Michael Keaton’s career and made Alejandro a director people were talking about. The Revenant did the same for different reasons and sidelined Alejandro for the next seven years, only seeing him helm the low-budget Spanish film Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths in 2022. As of this writing, he is working with Tom Cruise and John Goodman on something due in 2026, but the details for that production are sparse. 

The Revenant, when boiled down to the basics, is a revenge film. It’s technically based on a true story, but so many of the details have been altered that it might as well be an original story. It’s based on the novel by the same name written by Michael Punke, which is in turn based on the poem The Song of Hugh Glass. Hugh was a frontiersman who, in 1823, was mauled by a grizzly bear and left for dead by his companions. The tale goes that he was left abandoned without food or weaponry and crawled his way 200 miles to South Dakota to catch up with his fur-trading companions. The validity of this story is in dispute, of course, but it made for a great tale to tell around the campfire, and it eventually was immortalized in poem. 

Michael Punke turned that poem into a novel that was optioned for its film rights before it was even published. That option fell stagnant for more than a decade before it finally ended up in the hands of Alejandro Iñárritu, who found a way to translate it to the screen, albeit altered heavily from the original prose.  Hugh Glass was not a married man nor did he have a son at this time. The film gave him a Native American wife and grown son in what feels like a bid for diversity. This also allowed for the inclusion of mysticism that didn’t exist in the original story, too. While this stuff is interesting to watch, it isn’t particularly relevant to the story and only serves to slow down an already glacial pace. 

The best part of the film is the opening. Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is guiding Captain Andrew Henry’s (Domhnall Gleeson) trappers through the present-day Dakotas. While wrapping up skins and preparing to leave, the group is besieged by an Arikara war party seeking to recover the chief’s abducted daughter. Many men are killed, and lots of furs are lost to the war party. Glass and the men escape on the Missouri River but soon return to land based on Glass’ recommendation, believing they will be an easy target on the water. While scouting for food, Glass is attacked by a grizzly bear and brutally wounded. 

Captain Henry’s men attempt to carry Glass with them, but it becomes apparent that he is likely to die, and it is argued that he would be better off if they mercy-kill him. Henry cannot bring himself to do it, so he takes volunteers who will stay with Glass until he dies and then give him a proper burial. Glass’ son, Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), John S. Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), and Jim Bridger (Will Poulter) accept and stay behind. When Henry and the rest of the men are gone, though, John tries to smother Glass to speed up the process; Hawk tries to stop him and is killed for his efforts. John then convinces Bridger, who is unaware of Hawk’s murder, that the Arikara are coming back and that they need to flee, leaving Glass behind to die. A reluctant Bridger goes along. The rest of the film is the story of Glass fighting to recover and get back to Fitzgerald and get his revenge for the death of his son. 

This is a stark film in all senses of the word. There is little color to be found, and everything feels bleak and depressing. The technical aspects of this film are first-rate, and it looks gorgeous when watched on a large ultra-high-definition screen. You can tell the actors are legitimately cold and miserable and that the environment is harsh and unforgiving. But just because it feels realistic to the times and setting doesn’t make it an enjoyable experience to sit through. The sound design, while nominated for their work, attempts too hard to make things sound like you are really there, often panning that dialogue through different channels as the camera moves. This translates to being difficult to understand the dialogue, especially Tom Hardy’s which is in a thick accent that fights against that sound mix.

This film is far too slow-paced. It starts out with an amazingly staged battle between Captain Henry’s men and the Arikara warriors. This is a marvel to watch as the camera mimics our eyes, glancing left, right, and up as arrows fly and people are mercilessly killed. But after this amazing sequence is over, the film steps back and assumes a deliberate pace that is difficult to stay with. On top of that, it runs for nearly three hours, far longer than this story needs to. And through that absurdly long runtime, there are more than a few moments that strain credibility and make us question just how much a person could possibly live through. 

All of this leads to a climactic finale that is painful to watch. The finale is a brutal one-on-one fight between Glass and Fitzgerald that ends with the latter in the hands of some Arikara who finish the job of exacting revenge. It’s a satisfying enough ending to this man and it ties into the subplot of the abducted Native American daughter. 

This film famously earned Leonardo DiCaprio his Oscar. He had been nominated before, but year after year, he kept being overlooked once the ballots were tallied. This is not his best work, but it feels like the Academy finally decided to award him for his total body of work, not specifically for this one. For years leading up to this, he had been taking roles that were considered Oscar bait, and it finally paid off. He continues to take on interesting parts, but that drive to get an Oscar no longer seems to be the force behind those choices. 

The Revenant is not a bad movie. But it’s not a pleasant one, either. There are films out there that I don’t particularly like but can appreciate them for what they bring to the art form. This is one of them. I can look at it and marvel at the production values, the sacrifices the team made to get the footage, and how it all came together to make such a gorgeous-looking film. I can look at all that and still not enjoy the overall experience of seeing it. I show scenes from this movie as a way to show-off my home theater system, but I would never subject someone to watching the film as a whole. It’s beautiful to look at in short bursts, but the overall experience leaves a sour taste in the mouth. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Arnon Milchan, Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent, and Keith Redmon

Best Director: Alejandro Iñárritu (won)

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (won)

Best Supporting Actor: Tom Hardy

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki (won)

Best Costume Design: Jacqueline West

Best Film Editing: Stephen Mirrione

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Siân Grigg, Duncan Jarman, and Robert Pandini

Best Production Design: Jack Fisk and Hamish Purdy

Best Sound Editing: Martin Hernández and Lon Bender

Best Sound Mixing: Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Randy Thom, and Chris Duesterdiek

Best Visual Effects: Rich McBride, Matthew Shumway, Jason Smith, and Cameron Waldbauer

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Release Date: December 16, 2015

Running Time: 156 Minutes

Rated R

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, and Will Poulter

Directed by: Alejandro Iñárritu